In a sobering sign of the times, Riot Games has announced it will be laying off around 530 people, an 11% reduction of the developer's headcount. Best known for its extremely popular League of Legends franchise on PC, which attracts more than 100 million active users monthly, it's a grim portent of the year to come.
This affects PlayStation players because Riot was in the process of bridging the gap to console, using its Riot Forge publishing label as a vehicle. The plan was to partner with indie studios and have them develop LoL games on other platforms across a wide range of genres. Ruined King: A League of Legends Story was the first outing on PlayStation, followed by The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story. A total of six games were developed, some exclusive to Nintendo and Xbox, but that experiment will now cease, and the company will refocus on its core offerings.
Obviously, there are no good layoffs, but it must be noted that the reported severance package is much more generous than the majority we report on. Tencent, the owner of Riot Games, will offer at least six months' salary, a cash bonus, a personal computer, and career support for each employee affected. CEO Dylan Jadeja put the situation starkly: "Today, we're a company without a sharp enough focus, and simply put, we have too many things underway."
Are you surprised to see Riot Games course-correct so sharply? If a company with an IP as popular as League of Legends isn't safe, is any? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source riotgames.com, via riotgames.com]
Comments 16
There were 9000ish layoffs from last year across the entire gaming industry reportedly. This alone is about 5% of that. Combine that with the 2,500 that was previously reported last week and we’re already at about 1/3rd of the total estimated layoffs from 2023. It’s January 22nd. If there isn’t an implosion of almost every AAA dev by the end of the year I’d be shocked.
I've liked the Riot Forge stuff so far but honestly never really understood the market for then. I don't think normal LoL players are interested in other genres and I don't think players unfamiliar with LoL would gravitate to games in the fiction.
Cecilia D'Anastasio is a very good journalist fr
@RudeAnimat0r It for the players (myself) who likes the universe, Runeterra, and characters but can't stand the player base and gameplay. With the massive success of stuff like KDA, Arcane... etc. There is now a lot of new fans who have been introduced to franchise in different ways.
I wished I was working there and get layed off too. 6 months free pay plus even more thousands bucks.
Anyway, how a studio like that has/needs 5000 employees.. wtf
If more that 500 people comprise 11% of their employers then they surely are severely bloated and overstaffed.
With the Chinese government’s recent crackdown on gaming wiping out nearly $54 billion of Tencent’s value, this is actually not that surprising.
@AverageGamer If you are talking about the LOL crowd those people are horrible. Making threats, fake reports even when you do nothing wrong, racism, AFK when not winning, raging even if you are In the low end of the end of the game.
Could this be a product of there being too many games? Not every game can be a huge hit, so for any studio that has a flop, there is going to be layoffs and studio closings.
Sad about Riot Forge. I don't play League anymore but I always bought their indies to keep up with the characters, also the games are very fun.
I also doubt Riot is not having insane profits from League so, unlike other companies, this is just pure greed. Always hated Riot and how they act with their employees and how they only care about selling skins
Ruined King was a really excellent game. Shame Forge is closing down.
Translation: Our League spin off games didn't make sell a bajillion copies so we are not making anymore.
@Excess I’m glad someone mentioned the Chinese government going after gaming affecting Tencent, seems very relevant. The article mentioned Tencent but not their big picture problem.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/22/tencent-netease-shares-plummet-on-new-china-online-gaming-guidelines.html
Unionize, folks! That's one of the only levers we, as a working people, have ✊
Gotta say, if layoffs are necessary, this is most certainly the way to do them.
6 months salaries and all the pluses is significantly more than most industries would ever contemplate.
35% of the gaming industry has been laid off in the last year this has to be a record for any one job industry
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